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CBC Canada Reads 2011 – You Choose!

This year, CBC Canada Reads is taking a new direction, calling on all Canadians to nominate their favourite novel from the past decade. You can fill out the recommendation form with the novel of your choice and you will help create the list of Top 40 Essential Canadian Novels of the Decade.

All entries must be received by midnight Monday, October 25, 2010, so now is the time to advocate for your favourite book of the decade!

Some Recommendations:

The Mistress of Nothingby Kate Pullinger

“A highly sensual evocation of place and time, Kate Pullinger’s The Mistress of Nothing is a journey down the Nile that explores the subtle complexities of power, race, class and love during the Victorian era. The book, narrated by the character of the maid, Sally Naldrett, has one of the most distinctive and memorable voices in recent literature.” Governor General’s Award Jury Citation

The Promise of Rain by Donna Milner

“The Promise of Rain uses straightforward, even gentle, language that serves to heighten the awfulness of the tragedies unfolding in the two time frames. Milner never over-dramatizes. And while she provides a full picture of the cruelty human beings can inflict on one another, she does so with a powerful restraint. At the heart of the novel is the idea that ordinary people can do both terrible and wonderful things. They can hate, and they can love.” — Globe & Mail

Fault Lines by Nancy Huston

“A multigenerational saga set against the major upheavals of the past century… this inventive, tough and technically brilliant novel tracks the psychologically crippling effect of tearing up cultural and genealogical roots. It does so backward from the present to the savage upheaval of the Second World War, and it does so through the eyes of four different six-year-old protagonists.” — Michel Basilières, Globe & Mail

Sounding Line by Anne DeGrace

“DeGrace’s writing is moving and her characters speak in a believable regional dialect and Maritime rhyth” — Quill & Quire

“Her craft is refined and her prose engaging.” — Globe & Mail

Beside Still Waters by Barry Callaghan

“Beside Still Waters has all that is great of Hemingway, Conrad and Dostoevsky.” — Winnipeg Free Press